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Hervé Niquet, Orchestre de chambre de Paris - Fromental Halévy: La Reine de Chypre (2018)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Hervé Niquet, Orchestre de chambre de Paris - Fromental Halévy: La Reine de Chypre (2018)

Hervé Niquet, Orchestre de chambre de Paris - Fromental Halévy: La Reine de Chypre (2018)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 748 Mb | Total time: 73:37+79:09 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Ediciones Singulares | # ES10328RSK | Recorded: 2017

Berlioz wrote of Halévy’s La Reine de Chypre (1841): ‘Its success will at least equal that of La Juive. And Wagner added: ‘It is in La Reine de Chypre that Halévy’s new style has appeared with the most brilliance and success.’ So several voices – and those by no means insignificant – have declared this work, written six years after La Juive, to be its composer’s masterpiece. Premiered on 22 December 1841, Halévy’s opera offered the limelight to Rosine Stoltz in the title role: she was the only woman in the cast, for it had been found preferable to isolate her, following her incessant disputes with the other female singers in the company.

Véronique Gens, Münchner Rundfunkorchester & Hervé Niquet - Paysage (2024)

Posted By: delpotro
Véronique Gens, Münchner Rundfunkorchester & Hervé Niquet - Paysage (2024)

Véronique Gens, Münchner Rundfunkorchester & Hervé Niquet - Paysage (2024)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 251 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 131 Mb | Digital booklet | 00:56:22
Classical, Vocal | Label: Alpha Classics

In this recital, Véronique Gens and Hervé Niquet bring back to life a neglected aspect of France’s Romantic heritage: songs with orchestral accompaniment. Aside from a few pieces by Debussy and Duparc, and Berlioz’s famous Nuits d’été, orchestral mélodies form a virtually forgotten continent. In collaboration with the specialists of the Palazzetto Bru Zane, Alpha Classics now revisits these musical landscapes, taking us from Brittany (Hahn) to Persia, whose beauties Fauré and Saint-Saëns exalt in very different ways. Mélodies by Chausson, Gounod and Dubois and rarely heard instrumental pieces by Massenet, Fauré and Fernand de La Tombelle round out the journey with their musical reveries.

Hervé Niquet, Brussels Philharmonic - Victorin Joncières: Dimitri (2014)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Hervé Niquet, Brussels Philharmonic - Victorin Joncières: Dimitri (2014)

Hervé Niquet, Brussels Philharmonic - Victorin Joncières: Dimitri (2014)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 668 Mb | Total time: 61:51+68:47 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Ediciones Singulares | # ES 1015 | Recorded: 2013

Joncières epitomises the Romantic artist fascinated by nobility and grandeur. This is clear from the titles of his works alone: Sardanapale, Lancelot, Le Dernier Jour de Pompéi, Le Chevalier Jean, Dimitri. Listening to the latter, his masterpiece (1876), we realise too that he was a contemporary of Gounod and a champion of Wagner. Dimitri carries on the tradition (begun by Meyerbeer) of spectacular, monumental works. It takes the listener from a monastery near the River Don to a palace in Krakow, then to the castle of Wyksa and finally the Kremlin in Moscow. At the time it was written, Bayreuth, Orange and Béziers were about to turn opera into a popular art with mass appeal.

Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - Mozart, Salieri: Requiem (2022)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - Mozart, Salieri: Requiem (2022)

Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - Mozart, Salieri: Requiem (2022)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 369 Mb | Total time: 68:53 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Château de Versailles Spectacles | # CVS078 | Recorded: 2021

Two illustrious composers at odds with their Requiem? When, in 1791, a 36-year-old Mozart composed the one that would remain unfinished due to his death, he did so in response to a commission from the eccentric Count von Walsegg. Mozart would never hear his music. At the time, Salieri was at the height of his glory at the age of 41, famed for his operas from Paris and Milan to Rome and of course Vienna, where he was Court Composer and Director of the Italian Opera. Having put an end to his lyrical career, in 1804 he composed his Requiem, which was strictly intended for his own funeral, where it was indeed played - in 1825.

Hervé Niquet - Gloire Immortelle ! (2023)

Posted By: delpotro
Hervé Niquet - Gloire Immortelle ! (2023)

Hervé Niquet - Gloire Immortelle ! (2023)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 327 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 150 Mb | Digital booklet | 01:02:47
Classical, Choral | Label: Château de Versailles Spectacles

Following the Revolution of 1789, it was no longer His Majesty's professional army, but the living body of the nation carried the flag of its new National Guard on the battlefield. Military music flourished as never before and influenced the entire musical scene of the time, resulting in a musical legacy dedicated to the triumphant glory of the Republic. This recording, featuring trumpets and drums, harmony orchestras, military rhythms and patriotic choruses, provides a 'very French' anthology: the French Army Choir and the Symphonic Orchestra of the Garde Republicaine, conducted by Herve Niquet, invite us to sing these odes to France, the immortal legacy of our forefathers, with panache and a hand on our hearts.

Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - Bouteiller: Requiem pour Voix d’Hommes; Brossard: Stabat Mater (2010)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - Bouteiller: Requiem pour Voix d’Hommes; Brossard: Stabat Mater (2010)

Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - Bouteiller: Requiem pour Voix d’Hommes; Brossard: Stabat Mater (2010)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 348 Mb | Total time: 62:11 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Glossa | # GCD 921621 | Recorded: 2010

The richness and splendour of French Baroque sacred music, by turns gravely sombre and spectacularly exuberant, have already been amply demonstrated by Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel through their series of recordings on Glossa of music by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. But it was not just in Paris or in the country’s religious foundations that such involved music-making was called upon, but also in cities such as Troyes and Châlons-sur-Marne where Pierre Bouteiller, maître de musique in cathedrals there during the reign of Louis XIV, composed his Missa pro defunctis, a beautiful setting scored for five voice parts with instrumental accompaniment.

Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - André Campra: Le Carnaval de Venise (2011)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - André Campra: Le Carnaval de Venise (2011)

Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - André Campra: Le Carnaval de Venise (2011)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 712 Mb | Total time: 70:14+58:47 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Glossa | # GCD 921622 | Recorded: 2011

At the dawn of a new century when André Campra was busy writing his Carnaval de Venise (1699), was the composer aware that he would be passing onto the Académie Royale de Musique a fabulous and legendary work that would remain without successors? And whilst the court of the ageing Louis XIV was endeavouring to conserve the spirit of the Grand Siècle at Versailles, Paris was already humming with the new ideas of the Age of Enlightenment.

Herve Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - George Frideric Handel: Messiah 1754 (2017)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Herve Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - George Frideric Handel: Messiah 1754 (2017)

Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - George Frideric Handel: Messiah 1754 (2017)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 601 Mb | Total time: 116:22 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Alpha | # ALPHA 362 | Recorded: 2016

Why yet another Messiah? ‘I went through the different scores that exist and decided on the very interesting 1754 version, which features five soloists. You must remember that, when Handel arrived somewhere to perform his oratorio, he had soloists of varying standards available to him. So he quickly revised his score accordingly… All this is directly related to the reality of Handel’s situation as a concert promoter. In those days, to earn a living from his music, a composer absolutely had to get his works performed and make a profit on the evening. The idea of not retouching a work to avoid “spoiling” or “distorting” it is a much more modern one. There must be around a dozen versions of Messiah (I won’t list them all). The 1754 version is rarely played because it calls for five soloists: two sopranos, alto, tenor and bass… I’ve opted here for an operatic interpretation, taking its cue from the drama inherent in this account of the life of Christ.

Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - George Frideric Handel: Coronation Anthems & Te Deum (2022)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - George Frideric Handel: Coronation Anthems & Te Deum (2022)

Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - George Frideric Handel: Coronation Anthems & Te Deum (2022)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 351 Mb | Total time: 68:05 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Alpha | # ALPHA868 | Recorded: 2021

‘Well, what a surprise – a divine surprise! I have delighted in immersing myself in the world of Handel for more than forty years now. But I must admit that I experienced yet another lesson in strength and joy when I toured and recorded the Dettingen Te Deumand the Coronation Anthems’, says Hervé Niquet. As a lover of large orchestral formations, he has assembled a number of instrumentalists and singers close to the (gigantic) forces used at the premiere, with a large band of oboes, bassoons and trumpets, and assigned the solo arias to the entire ‘chapel’. Niquet speaks of ‘the glittering power of this ceremonial music concocted by a Handel conscious of placing the best of his genius at the service of the crown and of history’, and he in turn invests all his enthusiasm and expressiveness in these works combining ‘grace and strength’. Fans of Champions League football will recognise in Zadok the Priestthe theme of that competition’s anthem!

Hervé Niquet, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra - Jean-Baptiste Lully: Persée (2005)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Hervé Niquet, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra - Jean-Baptiste Lully: Persée (2005)

Hervé Niquet, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra - Jean-Baptiste Lully: Persée (2005)
NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | Francais (LinearPCM, 2 ch) | (Dolby AC3, 6 ch) | (DTS, 5 ch) | 127 min | 7,47 Gb (DVD9)
Classical | Label: EuroArts | Sub: English, Francais, Deutsch | Recorded: 2004

In his position as the king’s composer, Jean Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) created the opera Persée for Louis XIV. The opera was considered the crowning achievement of 17th century French music theatre and was widely recognized as Lully’s greatest work. Filled with dancing, fight scenes, monsters and special effects, this truly spectacular music drama recounts the thrilling story of Perseus, son of Zeus and heroic vanquisher of the snake-haired Gorgon Medusa. More than half a century after its premiere, Louis XV chose “Persée” to open the new Royal Opera House at the Chateau de Versailles, an event that formed part of the celebrations for the future Louis XVI’s marriage to Marie Antoinette.

Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - Charpentier: Te Deum; Messe de Mr de Mauroy; Leçons de Ténèbres & Méditations (2003)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - Charpentier: Te Deum; Messe de Mr de Mauroy; Leçons de Ténèbres & Méditations (2003)

Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Te Deum; Messe de Mr de Mauroy; Leçons de Ténèbres & Méditations (2003)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 890 Mb | Total time: 180:02 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Glossa | # GSP 98003 | Recorded: 1999-2001

Niquet’s performances of Charpentier with Le Concert Spirituel are generally characterised by their liveliness. Niquet uses quite small forces, which emphasises the chamber nature of much of Charpentier’s writing, even in his grandest works. Niquet’s version of the Te Deum is one of the bounciest that I have heard. Crisp and lively playing from the instrumentalists emphasises the work’s dance-like qualities in a charming way. The faster sections are taken with remarkable speed and dexterity, but never feel rushed and they contrast admirably with the slower movements.

Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - Joseph Bodin de Boismortier: Daphnis et Chloé (2009)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - Joseph Bodin de Boismortier: Daphnis et Chloé (2009)

Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - Joseph Bodin de Boismortier: Daphnis et Chloé (2009)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 626 Mb | Total time: 45:38+55:44 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Glossa | # GCD 921618 | Recorded: 2001

Following on from Callirhoé (André Cardinal Destouches), Sémélé (Marin Marais) and Proserpine (Jean-Baptiste Lully), three important tragédies lyriques rescued from oblivion by Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel, Glossa is now restoring to the catalogue and within its collection of French Baroque opera, a recording made in Metz in December 2001: Daphnis et Chloé, the work which was to add Joseph Bodin de Boismortier to the roll call of the history of music in a most determined fashion.

Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry: Richard Cœur de Lion (2020)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry: Richard Cœur de Lion (2020)

Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry: Richard Cœur de Lion (2020)
NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | Francais (Dolby AC3, 6 ch) | | 90 min | 4,93 Gb (DVD9)
Classical | Label: Château de Versailles Spectacles | Sub: Francais, English, Deutsch | Recorded: 2019

André Grétry's Richard Coeur de Lion, or Richard the Lionhearted, lay neglected until 2019 when a production by the Opéra Royal de Versailles was mounted. This album is taken from that performance, and it's very well recorded indeed. The opera was quite well known in its time and was even performed in the young U.S. (in Boston, in 1796), and it's a great find, a real crowd-pleaser as much today as at the end of the 18th century. The story is based on a probably imaginary tale of an episode during Richard's return from the Crusades, when he was imprisoned in Linz, Austria.

Hervé Niquet & Le Concert Spirituel - Boismortier: Don Quichotte Chez La Duchesse (2022)

Posted By: delpotro
Hervé Niquet & Le Concert Spirituel - Boismortier: Don Quichotte Chez La Duchesse (2022)

Hervé Niquet & Le Concert Spirituel - Boismortier: Don Quichotte Chez La Duchesse (2022)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 379 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 151 Mb | Digital booklet | 01:04:13
Classical, Opera | Label: Château de Versailles Spectacles

In 1743, two years before Rameau's Platee, Boismortier created an extraordinarily modern and madcap "comic ballet", Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse. As the exuberant plot unfurls, Cervantes' hero encounters monsters, enchanters, princesses and people from Japan, making for plenty of offbeat and audacious dances and choruses. Musical beauty rubs shoulders with satirical and irreverent comedy. A choice work for Herve Niquet, who leads his Concert Spirituel with unparalleled energy!

Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry: Richard Cœur de Lion (2020)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry: Richard Cœur de Lion (2020)

Hervé Niquet, Le Concert Spirituel - André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry: Richard Cœur de Lion (2020)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 395 Mb | Total time: 73:18 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Château de Versailles Spectacles | # CVS028 | Recorded: 2019

André Grétry's Richard Coeur de Lion, or Richard the Lionhearted, lay neglected until 2019 when a production by the Opéra Royal de Versailles was mounted. This album is taken from that performance, and it's very well recorded indeed. The opera was quite well known in its time and was even performed in the young U.S. (in Boston, in 1796), and it's a great find, a real crowd-pleaser as much today as at the end of the 18th century. The story is based on a probably imaginary tale of an episode during Richard's return from the Crusades, when he was imprisoned in Linz, Austria. A trouvère singer named Blondel who serves the king realizes his predicament, sneaks into the prison disguised as a blind fiddler, and touches off an action-packed sequence of events with a romance involving the prison governor, a grand party, and a visiting Flemish countess whose troops rescue Richard in the end.